Industrial band saws have been used for decades to cut non-ferrous and ferrous bar stock. Typically, the bar stock would be indexed along a conveyor line to an appropriate length, and the band saw would make a complete cut perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the bar stock. This type of cut would be made repeatedly to produce as many pieces as desired.
Prior to the present invention, band saws were not used to make intricate cuts on non-ferrous and ferrous bar stock for several reasons. First, the relative movement between the saw blade and the work was limited to a single planar path. Second, no means was provided for precisely rotating the bar stock or limiting the depth of the cuts made to produce more than one cut on any one indexed section of the bar. Third, no mechanism was known to enable the band saw to make repeated fine cuts perpendicular to, parallel to, or at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the bar stock. Specifically, such types of intricate cuts were made on milling machines requiring a much longer period of time to complete the cuts.